Court Reaffirms Stand on Prayer, Will Rule on Moments of Silence

Washington--The U.S. Supreme Court last week reaffirmed its earlier
rulings that organized, spoken prayer in public schools is
unconstitutional, but agreed to consider for the first time the
constitutionality of laws calling for "moments of silence" in the
schools.

The Court will review an Alabama moment-of-silence law; similar laws
are in place in 22 other states.

The Court's actions marked the latest in a series of recent
developments involving the school-prayer issue.

Last month, the Senate rejected two pro-posed constitutional
amendments that would have cleared the way for organized prayer in
public schools. One would have nullified the Supreme Court's initial
1962 prohibition against official sponsorship of religious activities
in school. The other would have permitted silent prayer in schools.

Since then, advocates of organized prayer in the schools have turned
their attention to legislation that would guarantee the right of
student religious groups to meet on school grounds. Last week, the
House Education and Labor Committee passed by a so-called
"equal-access" measure by a vote of 30 to 3. A similar measure has been
reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and could be acted on by
the full chamber at any time, according to Congressional staffers.

Alabama Laws

The Court's announcements involving school prayer last week concern
a suit by Ishmael Jaffree, a father of three children in the Mobile,
Ala., school system who is challenging the constitutionality of two
Alabama laws.

The first law authorized but did not require teachers to lead
"willing students" in prayer. It suggested a specific prayer composed
by the son of then-Gov. Forrest H. (Fob) James.

Without comment, the Court affirmed a decision by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which declared the law to be in violation
of the First Amendment's prohibition against governmental establishment
of religion.

The Court's reaffirmation of its stance against organized, spoken
prayer in public schools follows its recent decision to allow a Rhode
Island town to pay for and display a Christmas nativity scene. Some
Court observers had thought that decision might be a sign of the
Justices' willingness to "lower" the wall of separation between church
and state.

The second Alabama law challenged by Mr. Jaffree gives teachers the
authority "to announce that a period of silence not to exceed one
minute in duration shall be observed for meditation or voluntary
prayer, and during any such period no other activities shall be engaged
in." The Court agreed to review the constitutionality of that
legislation.

The 11th Circuit Court had ruled that this law amounted to a
state-sponsored "advancement of religious activities" and thus also
violated the Constitution's establishment clause.

The Court will not hear the case, Wallace v. Jaffree (Case No.
83-812), at least until sometime after October.

It received the case on appeal from the State of Alabama and the
Mobile County school board. It consolidated the case with Smith v.
Jaffree (No. 83-929), a separate but similar appeal filed by more than
600 parents, teachers, and students who favor the moment-of-silence
law.

Religious Beliefs

The Reagan Administration late last year joined the effort to get
the Court to review Alabama's moment-of-silence law. In a
friend-of-the-court brief, the Administration argued that public
schools must accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of the
students who attend them.

"Moment-of-silence statutes are libertarian in the precise spirit of
the Bill of Rights: They accommodate those who believe that prayer
should be an integral part of life's activities (including school), and
do so in the most neutral and noncoercive spirit possible," the Justice
Department wrote.

"Failure to accommodate the religious need of students since [1962]
has contributed to the exodus of many religious students, especially
Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals, from the public schools,
much as the failure to accommodate the distinctive religious needs of
Jewish and Roman Catholic students in an earlier era induced them to
abandon public schools and form private school systems of their own,"
it also said in its brief.

Since 1962, when the Court struck down organized school prayer in
Engel v. Vitale, 23 states have enacted laws allowing an organized
moment of silence for prayer or meditation.

Recently, federal courts have found such laws unconstitutional in
New Jersey, Tennessee, and New Mexico, while a similar law in
Massachusetts was upheld.

The Court last week refused, without comment, to hear a case, Board
of School Commissioners of Mobile County v. Jaffree (No. 83-804)
involving another aspect of the school-prayer issue. In this suit, Mr.
Jaffree complained that teachers informally--without authority from any
state law--led students in prayer. The 11th Circuit Court declared that
practice unconstitutional, too, and the Mobile school board asked the
Supreme Court to review the decision.

Gary L. Jarmin, legislative director of Christian Voice, a religious
lobbying organization active in the school-prayer movement, said the
Court's decision to review the Alabama moment-of-silence law was "a
step in the right direction."

He said a decision by the Justices upholding the law, in combination
with Congressional passage of the equal-access legislation, would
"remedy many of the concerns" of prayer advocates.

But he added that his organization will continue its fight on behalf
of official approval of vocal prayer in the schools. One possible
strategy, he said, would be to press for consideration of another
constitutional amendment in 1986 or beyond. Another scenario, he said,
would be to urge a Supreme Court reshaped in a second Reagan
Administration term to reconsider its opposition to vocal prayer.

Notice: We recently upgraded our comments. (Learn more here.) If you are logged in as a subscriber or registered user and already have a Display Name on edweek.org, you can post comments. If you do not already have a Display Name, please create one here.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.